Welcome to HosPortal! This article outlines the process to set up a new customer, explains the different roles for you and the HosPortal team, and outlines the information we will need to assist you get up and running.
Overview and timing
We normally expect that a setup process will take around 6 weeks depending on the complexity of the roster and the availability of your administrative staff. It helps if we set a target go-live date early on, as we can then work backwards from there.
The exact timing will need to be confirmed after we have the checklist of information described in the next section below.
The general approach is:
HosPortal will work with you so we understand your rosters and your rostering approach. This allows us to guide you on the various rostering configurations and allow us to have an informed discussion about the pros and cons of various alternative approaches.
HosPortal will set up a basic structure of your site and give your main roster administrators and super-users access. We would also help you upload the details of all the people you want on HosPortal so you have the data you need to start to build your rosters.
Over a period of a few weeks we would work hand-in-hand with your team to build out the main roster structures and templates. Although your super-users can do anything we can do, in practice we split the work as follows:
HosPortal would do those things that you would do only once or rarely...there is no benefit in training you to do these things when you can contact our help desk at any time.
We would train and coach your administrative team to set up and do those things that you would need to understand in more detail or need to do on a regular basis. For instance, if you use clinical allocation templates we would assist you to do those yourself.
We would undertake a review once we all feel that the system is ready to go.
HosPortal will prepare a set of welcome instructions for your users. These instructions are reasonably similar from site to site, but we can customise them for your users.
You should make sure that any staff who are required to set up HosPortal, such as your roster administrators and those who will be super-users, are aware that they need to set aside some time. We find that most users do a few hours at a time in between discussions with us over a couple of weeks, and it is not something you can just sit down and do from start to finish unaided.
Information to get started
To enable the first review, and before starting the activities on a more detailed setup checklist, please send us:
Rosters: A copy of all the rosters you want entered into HosPortal, such as your clinical allocations, on-call shifts and other staff activities listed on the rosters. We prefer to see them in the format that you would normally circulate them (e.g. PDF or Excel print-outs). If you use another software then screenshots of the key roster reports are helpful.
Patterns, Rules, and Calculations: A copy of any standard staffing patterns and rostering rules. If you use spreadsheets with calculations or other information hidden under the the main roster, we would like a copy of those spreadsheets, too. We do not undertake to copy the functionality of those tools, but it is helpful for us to better understand the tools you use and what that means for the process of building rosters.
Staff list: The name and relevant details of all your Staff that you will want to have them in HosPortal. We will need this from you in the attached Excel format:
Contact people: The names and contact details of key administrative people, so we know who to liaise with:
Who will be the super-users who will have administrative rights over the whole system, and who can give other people permissions?
Are there any people who will have admin rights over individual rosters, or who will manage particular user groups?
To issue a login to super-users we need their name and email address. People on the roster (and sometimes administrators) would usually also provide their mobile number.
Target dates: There are three main dates of importance:
The first date for which HosPortal will be the authoritative source of roster information, e.g. you would like to have your new rosters built on HosPortal from 1 August, with your existing roster tools being used until 31 July.
The date by which you want to finalise your rosters. For a roster starting 1 August you may want or need the final roster published by 30 June.
The date by which you want your staff to access HosPortal. Normally you would want to give them access a couple of weeks in advance of the first shift on the roster so they can see their shifts, and some places ask for 4-6 weeks in advance.
In some cases our customers want to proceed immediately with a self-roster process. If that is the case there is some additional information we will need about your normal roster rules, quota calculations and timing for staff to pick their shifts.
What next
Once we have the 'getting started' information we will review it and get back to you with any questions. To assist with that we will talk to key personnel to better understand their rostering approach and assist in any decisions that they need to make regarding the configuration and setup.
Detailed setup checklist
We will then go through the detailed onboarding checklist based on your specific circumstances. We will guide the site administrators through the various configuration screens that they need to be familiar with.
Training and help
Over the years we have found our approach to training to work best for most users:
For normal users, such as doctors and view-only users, the online support and the online help pages they receive in their welcome message when they first sign up has been proven to be enough. All users have access to our help files at any time, and access to our live chat support tool during most waking hours.
For roster administrators we find that the collaborative and iterative process we use to set up the rosters allows them to become familiar with what they need by the time we go live. Those people will be working closely with our team by email, videoconference and phone in the period leading up to launch and in the weeks following that as people become more familiar with the system. Where they need additional support, and after the setup is complete, the online files and live chat are also available.
Admin users also have access to our 'Mirror' site, which uses a copy of your data on a site that you can edit and experiment with without affecting your live rosters or your users. Further details can be found here.